Without a doubt one of the most prodigious producers working in electronic music now, Flying Lotus delivered his best work yet with this year’s Cosmogramma. The L.A. beatmaker went beyond the bass-heavy dubstep template to craft an album rich with mood and atmospherics. We got on the phone to the man to talk positivity, crazy saxophone solos and when we’ll see the brain-bending FlyLo live show back here.

Thank you so much for having a chat with ITM. I’ve been much a fan of your work since Los Angeles!
Thank you man [Laughs]. Aww, thank you so much.

Anyway, critical reception was massive to Los Angeles back in 2008. How does it feel to have a piece of work lauded by many as a game-changer, trend-setter or even the future of hip-hop?
I really don’t think about all the external stuff. I just worried about all of my shit being the same! Am I putting out something that shows and represents where I’m at and where I’ve been? You know, all the other stuff, that’s all good. The more I dwell on that stuff, the more worked up I can get. It’s nice but at the end of the day, I don’t necessarily get excited by it.

Cosmogramma sounds undeniably brilliant and you say it’s your most honest record. What message were you trying to convey? If there is one at all?
I just feel like it’s involved with what I started working with. First making music that sounded alright, you know? I brought together what I thought would be cool, crazy saxophone solos. It gets really close to that.

Upon listening to it, there’s a more static sound compared to the slick sound of LA, but you explore vast areas of hip hop. How important is it to you to keep capturing that dynamic and making sure it comes out sounding like Flying Lotus?
It’s kind of hard to explain. I just wanted to go further, I wanted to expand and I wanted the sound to go further and to make something that inspires me. I wanted to make something that would make me and you guys inspired.

Keeping on what you just said about furthering your sound, how would you prepare yourself to further your music?
Well, I think you just kind of sit and really think about where you stand. What you’ve been going through and you try and put it all the pieces together musically. You know, I feel like I had a rough draft [of the album] early on, something off the LA record but with even more work. I cut about half of those tracks and expanded upon them, added all kinds of stuff, you know? I added harp arrangements, and towards the end of the album, it became sort of a domino effect and it all fell into place.

Furthered sound alright. I felt some sort of cosmic connection to it; is there a sort of spiritual connection that you delved into?
Really? [Laughs hard] I hope that it does something positive not just to you, but to anyone that listens. That’s another big thing that I wanted the album to have, positivity to it.

You wanted to create the most ‘fusion’ record; do you think you’ve achieved it?
Uhm, no, not yet. Almost! There’s more shit that I want to do.

So you’re already planning LP 3?
Yeah, man!

Los Angeles was complimented beautifully by a number of B-sides in the form of EP X 1; can we see a similar route for Cosmogramma?
Yeah, I hope so. I hope we can do that. There’s no super immediate plans, I wanna do stuff that’s not related to the album. I wanna make more beats for a while.

One track in particular that stood out to me was the album closer Galaxy in Janaki. That made me just want to put on some sunnies and strut the streets, thinking I was the coolest guy alive. It’s a beautiful track.
[Laughs hard] Awww, thanks man. It’s a very sweet track. It’s probably the most important one on the album for me as it’s a dedication to my Mum. Janaki means mother and it’s very beautiful, and that track means the absolute most to me.

How about your visit to us down here? Can we see you coming to Australia soon?
Hell yeah, man! I’m definitely coming out there.

Can you sneak us some solid dates?
Not yet, I’m working on it, I really want to get it organised; I missed you guys last year. Maybe December and January.

Cosmogramma is out now on Warp through Inertia.